Semesters-In-Review ought to be long detailed accounts of specific achievements and failures. I have one 12 page paper left to do and the semester is over. Gotta be honest, it's not a particularly memorable, or worthy of recording, semester as school goes.
GIS was definitely worth taking and totally doesn't deserve to be a 4 credit class! It'll look good on the resume and I did pick up a few neat tips that I didn't know about before, so that's cool. I've got access to the ESRI training module online until next January, too, which is super.
Southwest Seminar was sometimes tedious, and I won't remember most of the details of the cultures and time periods, but it was very educational in terms of enlightening me to the very real differences in approach between Great Basin and Southwest archaeology. Such a pity we don't do real theory up north. The most important development, I guess, is a healthy appreciation for the importance of community studies. Not surprising given that Jim taught this one. Ultimately, if I had to sum up my feelings towards the class, though, it'd have to be something like "mmmm, Chaco...road trip...mmmm!"
History of Archaeology was the only class I actually needed this semester and I certainly would have had a lot more time to burn had I just stuck to this one and a bunch of thesis credits. Alas! But it was good for me. I really enjoyed this class. A good review of all the basics and some insights that I missed in previous theory-type classes. Jaime is a fabulous lecturer (this statement may be biased since she rarely actually lectured and bought us breakfast several times). I enjoyed the youthful and Oxfordian perspective on things. Made me dream of Cambridge a tidge without any intention of follow-through.
I defended my thesis proposal, too. I'd consider linking it here, but we changed what I'll actually do so thoroughly in the 1 1/2 hours we sat there that it wouldn't do any good. I'm excited by those changes, however, as they've turned the basic content back to my primary interests. I'm not particularly motivated enough to write about them here just now, but I'm sure you'll be subjected to more as the year goes on.
As far as extra-curriculars, I've got quite a lovable boy that I spend a goodly portion of time with these days. As a result, I haven't hung out with friends and such as much, but I consider it a fair trade for now. Work has been like pulling teeth. I've just really never had the time to make hours and it's frustrating and a half. But that's life.
And now, all that's left is the thesis! I'm back on full-time with the Uinta for the summer and probably part of the fall, though that'll be out of the archaeology shop doing recreation house permitting, and I'll probably try to keep putting in some hours for Jim and Dr Clark. My weekends are gonna save my life this summer, but in theory, I'll come out of the end of the federal fiscal year in better financial standing than I've been in all through grad school. Ish. If only we didn't have to deal with money! What junk it really is. Ironic--my thesis will deal with economic status. But not nearly as much as it would have, so it's all good.
Well, that's about it. Anything interesting, I'm sure, will be posted. Check out utaharchaeology.org for details on the up-and-coming Utah Statewide Archaeological Society/Utah Professional Archaeologist Council conference in Orem. I did the graphic design for the logo. We're printed it up on water bottles and they turned out pretty cool, if I do say so. One less thing to get done in the next month!
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